Questions about using a laptop in a lab/real world environment

Hello everyone.

I'm studying for the CCENT.

A friend of mine is letting me borrow a Cisco SR-520 to use in a lab.

Well, the only laptop I have is a MacBook. Running Mac natively, in my opinion, isn't a good way to learn Cisco.

As much as I love Mac, it's a Windows world. I managed to get Packet Tracer to run in a Wineskin, but was a pain. I wouldn't have these problems using Windows.

I've thought of the idea of buying a mini-laptop like a very small Sony Vaio, or whatever my peers recommend.

My questions are:

In corporate environments, are laptops assigned by the company? I would assume so, otherwise, they could trip port security.
But, if a company were to allow a network admin to use their own equipment, what would you/the experienced network admins use?
How large would the screen be?
What specs would you look for?
What programs would you use? Wireshark, GNS3, Packet Tracer, Putty?
Would you go for an older model or the latest/greatest?
If there is anything else I'm not thinking about, let me know?

Thanks for advice.

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Comments

Jon_Cisco

I think you are getting ahead of yourself. There is no need to buy a laptop now that will be compatible with theoretical future job.
If you want a laptop for your home lab go for it.

EdTheLad

1) Laptops are generally provided, i use 2, one is my personal mac which has 2 VMs running, win7 and linux. The linux vm is running iol.Corporate laptop is running Win7 and connection to corporate lan.
2) My choice would be mac book pro with 16Gig ram, 13" monitor is fine as i connect a second monitor.
3)13"
4)Wireshark, SecureCRT, their is a native version of SCRT available for mac.
5) Depends on how much money i'm willing to spend, 16 Gig ram would be a must have. nothing else matters much to me.

theodoxa

Yes. That doesn't mean you can't bring your own laptop as long as your employer allows it and you don't connect to their network.
15.6" used to be standard. Nowadays, there are some smaller screened laptops (Netbooks), but I would stick with the standard 15.6" as it gives you the most real estate, without making it hard to find cases like a 17.3".
RAM is king (most important) if you're going to be running GNS3. For Processor, there is no need to go with anything less than Quad Core unless you simply can't afford one. The best processors are AMD A10 or Intel Core i7. AMD is cheaper and has better video, but Intel has better compatibility (more of an issue if you're planning to run VMware) and more laptops available.
Wireshark, GNS3, Packet Tracer, MPutty, Putty, VirtualBox

TechGuru80

Uh what? You can run almost anything on a Mac...and who cares about packet tracer. You could always run a vm.

Not all companies use laptops but you get assigned a computer in basically any environment or share one.

Would run a Mac...securecrt, wire shark, gns3, maybe solar winds. Nothing bigger than 15 inches and if just for troubleshooting stuff 13 inch.

Codeman6669

Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not. Depends on the company.
A windows laptop with a ethernet port.
17
Make sure the lan port is gig not 10/100 I3 processor or better, solid state HDD if you can. 6gig ram or so
Depends. Wire shark, port scanners, putty, etc.
Newer. Look by specs
Make sure it has a ethernet port! Also a 10key on the keyboard is really helpful if you have to type a lot of IP addresses
I really dont like Mac anything. They make a quiet laptop ill give them that.

crazboy84

Ive never heard of a company that asks IT to bring their own laptop, that would be a terrible terrible security risk.

DoubleNNs

You could always create a WIndows VM on your Mac. Or use boot camp to install Windows bare-metal on another partition.